


the tears that you’ve shed, may find a tree to water

by FyreLily



Series: i promise i'll be here until the end [2]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Angst, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Happy Ending, How Do I Tag, Maria Calavera (mentioned) - Freeform, Penny Polendina (mentioned) - Freeform, Pietro Polendina (mentioned) - Freeform, btw this is not rosegarden this is gingerbread, oscar is babie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2020-09-28
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:33:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26691484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FyreLily/pseuds/FyreLily
Summary: It's been a couple hours. The shock has worn off, and now grief is the only thing left.Ruby looks for a photo of Oscar. She finds something so, so much better.---The sequel to the other fic in this series. I just wanted a small little happy ending, so this is very short. You could try to read this on it's own, but I recommend reading the one before it first.
Relationships: Oscar Pine & Ruby Rose
Series: i promise i'll be here until the end [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1942306
Comments: 5
Kudos: 63





	the tears that you’ve shed, may find a tree to water

It’s a couple hours later when Ruby finally wakes up again. She looks around at her friends, unsurprised to find that she is the only one awake. Even Maria and Pietro are asleep, having landed the ship behind a snow-covered mountain that they deemed far enough away from Atlas to take a break. Given what they’ve been through in the past couple of hours, it’s no wonder that they all need some sleep. They are all completely drained - physically and emotionally.

Ruby glances over at Penny. The Protector of Mantle is - well, not _exactly_ asleep, but something close to it. She had been quiet, allowing Ruby to cry into her shoulder when the huntress learned of Oscar’s death. Penny herself hadn’t cried, but Ruby knows that she too was upset when she heard, both at Ironwood and herself.

Ruby turns around, leaning against the wall with a frown as a new thought enters her mind. How would Ironwood know that Oscar had died? Did he find the small boy’s body somewhere? Did he watch him get killed?

Did he… kill Oscar… himself?

The silver-eyed girl pushes that thought out of her mind. Surely not even Ironwood would do such a thing. Killing a 14 year old boy that had never done anything but try to help? The very thought makes her shiver.

Deciding that there was no way that she was going to get more sleep with these horrible thoughts in her head, Ruby sits up. Surveying the airship, she spots Nora’s scroll, still on the floor where Ruby had tossed it away after her last hope had been taken from her. She pushes down the overwhelming grief that pushes up from inside her chest, and, despite her better judgement, reaches for the scroll.

Nora loves to take pictures of her friends in times of calm, catching them in silly poses or telling them to strike a pose as she snaps a selfie with her tongue sticking out. For a moment, Ruby is reminded of Velvet Scarlatina, an old friend from Beacon. Ruby smiles sadly to herself, the memories of all her old classmates flowing through her mind. She likes taking fun pictures too, but she knows that she doesn’t have any of Oscar. But Nora does.

Ruby blinks back tears as she opens the scroll, planning to find one of Nora’s happy photos of the farm boy and send it to herself so that she can try to remember Oscar fondly, rather than sadly.

The scroll is still open to the page that shows Oscar’s aura, Ruby’s eyes flicker across the yellow bar of Oscar’s aura as she swipes it off the screen.

Wait.

Oscar’s aura?

Ruby’s heart races unnaturally fast as she clicks back to the page as quickly as she can. And there it is, before her very eyes. The bar that shows Oscar’s aura level is not at zero. It’s not a green that would mean normal, but the bar is a warm yellow that means that it’s there. Yellow is Ruby’s new favorite color. Hardly daring to breathe, she clicks the “Call” button on a whim.

It rings, the sound echoing and waking up her friends.

“Wus going on?” Yang asks groggily.

Ruby doesn’t respond. Her heart is beating a mile a minute and she doubts she could speak even if she wanted to.

The scroll rings a second time. Ruby’s friends are shaking off sleep and looking around, confused.

The scroll rings a third time. Everyone is awake, and by now they know what Ruby is doing. They see the hope, anxiety, terror, and disbelief conflicting on her face. They don’t know what drives her to call the scroll of a dead boy, but they don’t say a word.

The scroll rings a fourth time. Everyone is holding their breath, and no one dares move.

The scroll rings a fifth and final time. Ruby’s heart sinks and she slumps _over of course he didn’t pick up why would he pick up the scroll malfunctioned he’s dead Oscar’s dead-_

“Nora? Is that you?”

Ruby’s head snaps up. Her eyes are filled with tears.

“Oscar?” she whispers, her voice hoarse and riddled with disbelief.

“Ruby? Yeah, it’s me, where’s Nora?” The audio is bad, but it’s undeniably the little farm hand’s voice. “I think my scroll broke so I don’t know how long this call will last but I should probably apologize to her, y’know? For running off without-”

Ruby is crying again.

**Author's Note:**

> Once again, thank you for reading! It's really late and I don't want to tag this with all of the mentioned characters, so.... yeah, just thanks! [You can find me on twitter @ sapphicscarlett](https://twitter.com/sapphicscarlett) or my [curiouscat](https://curiouscat.qa/sapphicscarlett)


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